


Winter Passing

by SQ (proteinscollide)



Category: Bandom, Panic! at the Disco
Genre: Alternate Universe - Animals, Found Family, Gen, Penguins, they're penguins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-01-18
Updated: 2009-01-18
Packaged: 2019-03-31 06:56:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13969710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/proteinscollide/pseuds/SQ
Summary: The one where they are penguins.





	Winter Passing

**Author's Note:**

> Most probably scientifically inaccurate, sorry! But given a good beta-read by popliar (littlerhymes) for everything else, so all mistakes remaining are mine.

The view was white and cold and terrifying empty as far as Brendon could see. When he finally spotted a speck – no, two specks – in the distance he shuffled faster towards them immediately, braving the chill wind whipping against his face. He finally caught up with them by the big rock, the only non-white object protruding out of the miles and miles of snow, which is why Brendon was sure he’d already passed it twice in the last two hours. 

“Hey! Hey, wow, am I glad to see you guys!” Brendon called out as he waddled towards the two penguins huddled before him. One of them lifted his head and fixed Brendon with a glare out of one beady eye. Brendon shrank back a little. Oh. These were not penguins from his colony. 

“Do we know you?” the penguin asked coldly. The other penguin had not lifted his head from where he had it tucked firmly against his chest. Brendon could see that this penguin already had glossy and smooth feathers, while the speaking, glaring penguin still had tufts of soft grey feathers, like Brendon himself. 

“Well, no,” Brendon answered. “But I’m lost and I haven’t seen another penguin in the last day. ” He shuffled a few steps closer, but both of them took a step back at the same time. 

“Wait,” Brendon said, a horrible suspicion dawning upon him. “Are you guys lost too?”

“No!” The other penguin finally lifted his head. “Of course we’re not. We just – our colony is just, um, over there.” He raised one flipper and waved it listlessly in the white empty void of swirling snow before them.

“Well, if you’re lost too we should definitely band together then,” Brendon said. “I’m Brendon. ”

“Ryan,” the older penguin said. “He’s Spencer.” 

“Nice to meet you, Ryan and Spencer,” Brendon said, because he’d been raised right. Then he hopped right between the two penguins, and they were so surprised by his sudden movement they weren’t able to scurry away before Brendon was nuzzling his beak into Spencer’s chest. 

“What. Are. You. Doing?” 

“I’m huddling,” came the muffled reply. “I’m cold. We’re genetically predisposed to gather for warmth. Ergo, huddling.”

“I think you need more than three penguins for a huddle,” Spencer said. 

Ryan said, “Genetically, and ergo? You’ve been hanging around the research stations.” 

“Yeah,” Brendon said, waving his flippers about apologetically. “The humans seem to like having me around. That’s how I got lost, I’m sure. I went to hang out at Casey Station, and when I finally made it home the migration had started and my colony were gone.” There was a pause, then Brendon said quietly, “I’m sure they didn’t mean to forget me. I’m sure they’re out there worrying about me right now.”

Ryan and Spencer shared a look over the top of Brendon’s head. 

“Okay, so maybe I was a bit hasty about three not being a huddle,” Spencer said slowly. “And uh, as we travel east – we’re not lost really, Pete always leads our colony to the same nesting spot – maybe we’ll run into your family.” 

So they made their way slowly through the bitter winter, across the open ice, huddling as best they could. And slowly, the sun returned, each day brighter and stronger. As they shuffled across the plain they saw and heard cracks in the ice, jagged edges ripping apart and slapped by gentle waves. Two months of darkness, and two months of starvation; they were now all far too skinny, but Spencer eyed Ryan, and he felt worry in his heart. 

“I’m just gonna…” Spencer jerked his head in the direction of a hole in the ice up ahead, by a rocky outcrop, and started sliding towards it on his stomach. Just as he reached the edge, just as he leant forward to slip into the water – he could already see glimpses of fish darting silver and slick deep in the ocean, and sunlight glinting off tiny krill – Spencer thought he heard a faint cry. 

“LOOK OUT!” 

Out of nowhere, a blur of white and black cut across his vision and shoved him to one side. He found himself trapped in a cleft of the rock, with a small penguin pressed against him. 

“Hi, I’m Jon,” the stranger smiled at him, then said, “Now let’s get the hell out of here!”

Spencer opened his mouth to ask why he should listen to the stranger who had so rudely knocked him aside, but then he glanced over Jon’s shoulder and caught sight of the leopard seal launching himself out of the water and onto the ice with a thud. The seal grunted, then flopped on determinedly towards Jon and Spencer. 

“Argh!” Spencer took Jon’s flipper in his and threw himself at the rock, desperately scrabbling for purchase upon its surface. When they made it to the top of the rock, Spencer found himself knocked flat again, this time by Brendon, who pressed the side of his head to Spencer’s chest, saying frantically, “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

“I’m perfectly fine, thanks to Jon,” Spencer said. “But I think I might have a bruise on my butt from you falling on top of me.” 

If penguins could blush, Brendon would’ve been bright red all over. “Um, no, yeah, right, sorry,” he said, rolling off Spencer and pushing himself upright with his beak. “Haha, I was just messing with you, is all.” He offered his flipper, and Spencer got to his feet unsteadily. 

Ryan, meanwhile, was fiddling with a white band of feathers around his neck, smoothing it down over and over, while staring at Jon with hearts in his eyes. “Thank you! You saved Spencer’s life.”

“It was nothing,” Jon said, waving a flipper magnanimously. “I’d been watching the bastard lurk under the ice by that hole for a while, waiting for a chance to eat.” There were introductions all round, then Jon asked, “So what are you three youngsters doing out here on your own?” 

“We’re looking for Brendon’s colony,” Spencer answered. “Me and Ryan are headed for the Ross ice shelf.” 

“Oh, Pete’s colony,” Jon said. “Mind if I come along?”

Spencer and Ryan shared a look, and were about to answer, when Brendon said excitedly, “Four! You can totally huddle with four!” He dived into the space between the other three penguins, humming happily. 

“Uh, Brendon, we don’t really need to huddle anymore,” Ryan said slowly, “It’s not that cold.”

“What if I said I had thin skin, and got cold easily?” Brendon countered, his voice muffled by Jon’s chest.

Ryan rolled his eyes, but they still fell into a compact huddle as they started moving once more across the ice. The sun rose higher in the sky, as winter disappeared completely into spring. 

Brendon broke ranks when they reached McMurdo station along the east shore. Ryan shouted, "Brendon, no!" when he realized where Brendon was headed, and they all lunged forward to try and keep a hold on him. But Brendon kept going, hopping gleefully up the bank towards a clump of humans shivering just outside the orange doorway of one of the large domed buildings. Jon moved a few steps closer, but even he was too wary of the humans; instead, they all watched in horror as Brendon waddled right up to the woman standing furthest away from the research facility. 

"Oh my god, he's going to - he - " Spencer sounded faint, as Brendon gently pecked at the shoes of the scientist, who smiled down at him.

"Hey, Morris - check this out!" One of the humans, a tall red-headed and bearded man, turned his head towards the noise. "Look at this one, he's so friendly. I wonder if he's one of ours?" Greta knelt by Brendon and reached out carefully. When Brendon made no move away, she carefully ran a finger tip gently along the underside of his flipper. 

"Ah-hah! He's tagged." She dug around in the depths of the right pocket of her parka, and then shuffled even closer to ease the scanner under Brendon's flipper. "TR901," she read off the display. "Bob - come over her for a moment - look up TR901 for me." 

Bob, he of the red hair and the beard encrusted with snow, grumbled but made his way over, taking smaller, slower steps when Brendon started to skitter away at his approach. "TR901," he murmured to himself, tapping away at his datapad. "Ah." He raised an eyebrow and knelt by Greta, turning the datapad at an angle so she could read it too. Greta scanned the information on the screen, then said to Brendon, "You're a tad off course, little buddy."

Brendon cocked his head and watched her intently. Greta laughed nervously, and said to Bob, "You know, it's almost like he's listening to me."

Bob was still scrolling down the page of information in front of him. "I wonder how he managed to make it this far down on his own. He's a long way from home - Faller's notes say that this chick's colony has spent the last three springs nesting up north." 

At this, Brendon made a loud angry honking noise, and turned away. He dropped to his stomach and slid down the bank back towards the other three, but he kept going as he passed them. Ryan and Spencer exchanged a look, but Jon just dropped to his tummy and raced after Brendon. By the time Ryan and Spencer caught up, Jon was speaking softly into Brendon's ear, one flipper petting him gently along the feathers on his back. 

"Are you okay?" Ryan asked as they approached. "Did they hurt you?"

"You let them TAG YOU?" Spencer said, right behind Ryan. He poked his flipper in Brendon's chest as emphasis as he said, "Humans are dangerous, did your parents not teach you that?"

"My parents don't give a shit about me, obviously," Brendon said pointedly. "And whatever, I just like doing my part for science, okay?" 

He pushed Spencer's flipper away angrily, and started walking across the ice away from them. 

"Okay, I feel like I just missed something here, " Ryan said, bemused. 

"The scientists said his family's most likely further north," Jon said. "I think he really hoped we'd chance across them along the way."

Spencer looked down at the ground for a moment, then he said, "Oh. Um, I'll go and fix - I'll just - "

"You can catch up," Ryan said knowingly. "We'll just be ahead." He took Jon's flipper, and they headed off in the opposite direction to Brendon.

"So, I'm really sorry," Spencer said, as he shuffled alongside Brendon, who continued ignoring him. "I didn't mean to make things worse." More silence. "Look, we're just around the glacier from Pete's colony. We'll drop by and let them know we're okay, and then we can head back north to look for them. If you want." 

There was another excruciating silence, and then Brendon said quietly, "You guys would do that? For me?"

Spencer said, "Well, yeah. Now that we've huddled and everything. You didn't think we'd give up on you so easily, did you?" 

There was a look in Brendon's eyes that said that maybe he had thought they would, but when he opened his mouth he just said mildly, "You know, going north - that's pretty dangerous. Didn't your parents teach you that?" 

Spencer rolled his eyes, and nipped Brendon's shoulder with his beak. "I said I was sorry! Now, turn around so we can catch up to Ryan and Jon." Spencer knew Brendon was fine when, as they approached the other two penguins, Brendon made a gesture to be quiet, and he dove headfirst down the slope straight into Ryan, knocking them both over in a pile of squawks (Ryan) and giggles (everyone else). 

It wasn't long after that the air was filled with the sounds of honks and squawks, a full cacophony of familiar noises. Spencer and Ryan waddled fearlessly into the crowd of penguins, greeting friends as they passed, while Jon and Brendon followed with some trepidation. They were headed for a short, oddly splotchy penguin up on a rocky outcrop, who was making an impressive amount of noise even in this crowd; and as he caught sight of Ryan and Spencer, his greeting became even more excited and loud. 

"Good to have you back, guys!" The smaller penguin started to fling himself at Ryan with his flippers wide open, but he reared back suddenly and said, in a quick stream of words, "Ooops. I keep forgetting I can't do that while - oh hey, I'm Pete and you're? Brendon, cool nice to meet you - Jonny! You're back! Awesome - oh my god Ryan, you have to - look! Isn't this amazing?" 

Pete finally stopped talking, taking a deep breath as he shuffled one awkward step back, and carefully lifted the skin of his belly hanging over his feet. There was a brief silence, then a small meep! as a baby chick poked its head out and blinked at the light. 

"Oh, Pete," Ryan said. "Congratulations!"

"Thanks," Pete answered, eyes a little wild. "Can you believe it? Me and the little guy lasted all through winter okay." 

The chick craned his head upwards and started chirping, leaning so far forward that he tumbled off Pete's feet and onto the ice. Pete leant down and gave the little guy a nudge with his beak, until he managed to stand unsteadily on his feet, and shuffled over to Ashlee, standing glossy and sleek and watchful to one side. 

"So what took you guys so long to get here?"

Spencer quickly explained about their detour past McMurdo, and about Brendon's family. "We're thinking we might start heading back north while the weather's warm. We could swim part of the way, skirting the coast."

Pete was quiet for a moment, then he said slowly, "I'm not going to stop you guys from doing that, but I am going to point out that it's going to be a pretty dangerous journey, especially if you spend a fair amount of time in the water. Not to mention, you don't actually know which part of north Brendon's colony would be." 

When Brendon opened his mouth to protest, Pete put up a flipper and continued, "I'm not saying you shouldn't look for them. But - obviously you got lost not far from where our colony started from at the end of autumn. If we're back there around the same time next year, it stands to reason that your family could be too. We'll keep our ears open for another colony nearby, find out from the others birds, maybe, if they've seen or heard anything too."

Pete added, "Who knows, but maybe you'll come to feel that we're family too."

"Stay with us and see," Spencer said, and Jon and Ryan echoed him. 

Brendon looked around, at Pete, and at Ashlee playing with their chick; and at Jon and Ryan holding flippers, and finally at Spencer, who was watching him with dark, kind eyes. “Yeah," he said finally, “yeah, I'd really like that.”

END


End file.
